More than half of marketers (53%) claim ‘you can never have too much data’ on customers, but one in three don’t know what to do with the data they’re collecting, according to new research.
A new study by Clicktale reveals that 40% of respondents feel unable to turn the data into actionable insights despite 45% of marketers actively investing in journey analytics platforms.
Clicktale’s report, entitled Defining Digital Experience, explores the current state of digital experience with input from 200 marketing and CX professionals across the UK and the US. The report examines the strategies, tools and technologies that brands are using to understand their customers and improve the digital experiences they offer.
Further findings reveal that only 46% of respondents believe they have a strong understanding of their customers’ behaviours across their digital channels. The report also describes how marketers are homing in on the kind of data they would like to collect, highlighting their desire to learn more about customers’ visit intent (47%) and in-page behaviour (34%).
Sara Richter, CMO at Clicktale said: “There’s an accepted myth in marketing that the more data you have, the more you’ll understand your customers. The only problem is that, sometimes, more data isn’t necessarily better – it’s just more. If you’re not able to make use of the data you collect and gain some actionable insights, then you’re not going to be able to make effective changes to improve their experiences.
“Data will always be important in marketing, but in an era obsessed with Big Data it’s easy to forget that we need more than just numbers in a spreadsheet to really get to know our customers. We need to understand their behaviour, and that can be a very human process. This is why we always advise that businesses use a combination of both machine learning and human expertise. Machines are great at analysing data, but the human element is still needed to put that data into context.”
Methodology
The “Defining Digital Experience” report was produced by Clicktale and CX Network and incorporates data from over 200 UK- and US-based marketing and CX professionals from some of the world’s leading brands. The result is a unique insight into the objectives and strategy that have come to shape today’s digital experience approach, as well as the technologies and processes that will continue to define DX in the years to come.